And we start again!

 Saturday 25 June 2022, Needham Market 0 Ipswich Town 7 - Pre-season friendly, Bloomfields

Will this be the season we win something? Could not have asked more from today, plenty of goals and good PR for the club. Plus a good day for Needham with a 1,500 full house and plenty of beer and food sold.

Northern (Summer Sport) in the East

Saturday 10 June - Rugby League Double header 

@ 1pm

Eastern Rhinos Development - 38 Canvey Knights - 18

East of England League Division One

Colchester Sports Park (back pitch - grass)

First game was quite even till The Rhinos took full control in the second half - and then the home team slightly ran away with the game. On one of the back pitches, no dug outs or any sort of stand

@2-30pm 

Eastern Rhinos - 24 Wests Warriors - 48
Southern Conference League East Division
Colchester Sports Park 3G

This game was on the pitch by the café, fully caged but at least some brick type bench seating was available. Disappointed that the game was not played on the fully railed pitch of Colchester RUFC.

Do not let the score fool you, this game was very close till the last 10 minutes when poor licking options chosen by the Rhinos on the last tackle gifted the West's a number of late tries.

Baltic Day 3 - Nations League - Latvia

 Day 3 - Friday 3 June 2022, Latvia 3 Andorra 0 - Nations League, Daugavas Stadium

Admission - 9 Euros, on line, print your own
Programme: Nil
Attendance: 5863

9am bus from Tallinn to Riga, just 18 Euros, comfortable, TV , free coffee - 4 and half hours later in the Latvian capital.

Like Estonia, great public transport so just 30 minute bus ride to the stadium, another fan zone on edge of ground, DJ, Beer and peanuts but not much food on offer.

3 sided ground, athletics track and only two stands open - all open to the elements, the side stand was quite full with a small group of Latvian 'ultras;' behind one goal.

Expected more from Latvia, they took the lead after just 9 minutes but never pushed on and in fact it was Andorra who came closest to scoring with the Latvian keeper not looking confident, he left one shot, that hit the bar!

Second half was much of the same, Latvia having plenty of the ball but being very wasteful when it came to taking their chances. It took till the 77th minute for Latvia to get their second, and it then took a while for VAR to confirm the Robert Uldrikis had his and Latvia's second goal and taht he was not offside. Latvia then added a third from the spot in the 85th minute. Uldrikis not happy he was not allowed to take it and get his hat trick.

Like in Estonia the night before, very few people left early and just a short wait and the bus had me back in the town within 35 minutes.

Baltic trip - day 2 - Nations League Estonia

 Thursday 2 June 2022 - Estonia 2 San Marino 0, Nations League, A. Le Coq Arena

Easy bus trip to the ground, just 10 minutes from the 'Old Town'. Fan zone between the main stadium and the Sportland Arena, including 2022 Estonian Euro vision act, Black Velvet!

Beer on sale and hot dogs only food, same fare on sale inside the ground, very modern stadium and impressive. Game was not so impressive, Estonia got on top and scored twice in the first half but they did not look comfortable. 

The second half actually saw San Marino get on top for short spells and they  could have even scored, the game then drifted to the finish, what I did notice, even with a poor game, did not see one fan leave early, guess the low crowd and superb public transport service, means no rush to leave.

Baltic break day 1

Wednesday 1 June 2022,Tallin FC Eston Villa 1 Tallinn AS Cosmos 2

League 3 North

Sole Gymnasium Stadium, Tallinn, Estonia

F & N

Attendance: 14

Kick off: 8.30pm.

Great public transport system and cheap, meant just a short bus ride to this G4 pitch, built on the side of a large swimming pool/gym.

Game was third v first so expected a good game, the home side started on the front foot and after 5 minutes, won a penalty but then missed it! The visitors were having less of the ball but looked more of a goal threat when they did get it and after 21 minutes took the lead. 

After 55 minutes the home team got back on level terms but 3 minutes later were behind again after conceding a soft penalty. Home side kept trying but AS Cosmos had little difficulty defending their goal, the home players began to get more frustrated with their own display and what they thought was some poor refereeing. As the game came to the closing stages the Ref started giving out cards ( to both teams) but after 88 minutes the home team had a player sent off, followed by another in injury time. According to the Estonian FA site a third home player may have seen Red after the game was over!

Well kept arena, which actually had 250 seats built onto the swimming pool wall, but trouble was since they were built someone had placed portable changing rooms in between the stand and the pitch, so only about 20 of the seats had any view of the game. Fortunately no cage and on the side of the pitch they had placed benching which could seat 100 plus spectators.

Surprised how poor the crowd was as both Tallinn teams, both at the top of the table and a regional third division game.